


Divers Alarums

by Frellywellies



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 20:18:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6092869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frellywellies/pseuds/Frellywellies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr Anon said: Dr. Foster is so exhausted he has overslept in his room; Matron Brannan sends Nurse Phinney to wake him.</p>
<p>Sometimes it's hard to get the day going.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Divers Alarums

Mary didn’t know exactly how worried to be when Matron Brannen asked her to rouse a sleeping Dr. Foster from his room. True, there was no particular insinuation in the matron’s tone and Mary and Jed had never tried to hide their friendship. A friend might be called upon innocently enough to wake another friend and who else would the matron have dispatched? An orderly? One of the nuns?

And yet, she could not help but feel a little flicker of alarm, which she tried not to show in her face. Embarking upon a clandestine relationship with a married man had a way of playing at her nerves until they were fine and fragile as a single strand of hair.

She could comfort herself, at least, with the knowledge that this was a highly unusual situation. Mary had never known Jed to oversleep before, under ordinary circumstances. He had been occupied late into the previous night with a delicate surgery, a boy with his jaw shattered but still enclosed by his skin. The entire lower portion of the soldier’s face was like a soft bag full of sticks and stones and Jed had done the best he could, which was little enough. It wasn’t the first such night he’d had this week, either.

Mary knew he was especially exhausted, though, because he had not detoured past her room and offered the odd little knock they developed (one loud knock followed by a pause and then two quiet knocks in quick succession). It was his way of requesting her presence in his room, which was slightly larger and more comfortable than her own and also had the profound benefit of not sharing a wall with one Anne Hastings.

It had been the first night, in fact, in several weeks that Mary had spent alone in her own bed. She did not begrudge Jed his rest, of course, but it was…disconcerting to her how strange it felt to be without him. How quickly she had become accustomed to their small rituals.

She let herself quietly into Jed’s room and was not particularly surprised to see the man himself sprawled across the bed, a pillow anchored over his face with one crooked forearm. He was so tired he had not even paused to take off his shoes.

Mary could not help but smile. His posture was almost childlike. It would be nice to imagine that he had exhausted himself with some innocuous mischief, rather than frequently futile attempts to put broken bodies back together.

She moved to the side of the bed and put her hand on his shoulder. “Jed,” she said softly, “wake up.”

For her troubles, she received only a disagreeable grunt.

Mary gave his shoulder a little shake. “Matron Brannen wants you to amputate an arm.”

“Give it to Hale,” Jed answered, his voice muffled from the pillow. “He can update his severed limb count.”

“Dr. Hale is amputating a different arm, I believe.” Mary said. “You must come down.”

Jed pulled the pillow away from his face and gave her a sleepy, cat-like blink. “Or…” he began thoughtfully, reaching out to snake his hand around the back of her right leg, “you could stay here?”

Mary laughed as he inched her closer to the bed until the tops of her thighs pressed against the mattress. “Ah yes, nothing at all suspicious about that. ‘Where are Dr. Foster and Nurse Phinney?’” She mimicked Matron Brannan’s staunch tones.”‘Oh, they’ve just been sequestered alone in a bedroom for ten minutes, nothing to worry over.’”

“Ten minutes?” Jed repeated in an aggrieved tone. “You do me no justice, Nurse Mary. Say fifteen, at the very least.”

“I believe you’re stalling, Dr. Foster.”

“Come here,” he said, stretched his free arm out to her, “just for a moment. And then I’ll do my duty gladly.”

Mary sighed and pretended to waffle, but ultimately permitted Jed to pull her atop him, her knees on either side of his pelvis and her hands on his shoulders. His hands ventured to her stomach, playing idly with the buttons the ran from her throat to her belly.

“I missed you,” he said, his face softening the way did so rarely outside this room.

“You spent all of yesterday with me,” Mary teased.

“Not this way.” He reached up to touch her hair, a curl that had sprung from her braid.

“I missed you as well,” Mary admitted. “Perhaps today shall be easier?”

He gave her a very flat look.

“No, I suppose it likely won’t. But we must arise all the same,” she said, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

Jed _hmm_ ’d thoughtfully. “I require further inducements, Nurse Mary,” he said, and she kissed the tip of his nose.

“Still not quite enough…”

Mary craned her neck to kiss first the right side of his mouth and then the left. Before she could lift herself back up, though, Jed locked both of his arms around her back and crushed her against him.

“Jed!” Mary scolded, but he was already rolling the two of them over, a flurry of skirts and trousers and errant bed covers.

“There,” he said, pinning her fast to the bed with the weight of his body. “You are caught, Nurse Mary.”

But that was not entirely so. Mary’s hands were still free and she drew them now along the sides of his torso to a place just below his ribs which she had found to be particularly sensitive. She had never exploited this knowledge. Until now.

She fluttered her fingers against his skin like she was tapping a tune out on a piano and Jed yelped before laughing involuntarily and writhing away from her. Mary took the opportunity to make good on her escape, clambering off the bed and standing upright once again.

“See?” Mary patted her hair back into place. “You are very alert now.”

On the bed, Jed was half-curled with his arms wrapped protectively over his middle. His eyes were so bright, the way they always looked when she deigned to participate in his games. For a moment, Mary felt a little pang of doubt. Would it really be so awful to sink back into that bed with him and allow the day to unspool around them?

Then, from downstairs came a high, shrill moan. A boy’s voice, another suffering soul.

“There is your alarm,” she said sadly. “Some households just have roosters, you know.”

Jed had scooted to the edge of the bed where he was staring down at his feet, which he appeared to have just noticed were still encased in boots. “You are a harsh taskmistress, Miss Phinney.”

“Harsh but fair, I should hope.” Mary paused at the door and took a moment to arrange her face into a neutral expression. Only once she was sure that she looked perfectly serene, utterly unaffected, could she step out into the hallway.

“Oh, the fairest of them all,” Jed said, getting to his feet with a ridiculous little hop. His hair was still disturbed from sleep, a series of wild peaks and crenellations.

She could not help it, he seemed to pull smiles from her irresistibly, the same way rain in springtime coaxed forth the buds. “Come along,” she said, reaching out for his hand, “the sooner our day is completed, the sooner our night can begin.”


End file.
